So this is one of those things where I too used to feel very strongly that it should be two spaces after a period, because that's what I'd been taught, but after college I ended up flipping around after reading an explanation in a LaTeX book the very thing ACDW points out: that it should technically be slightly bigger than a space but definitely smaller than two.
From there, I decided to only do one space in all my typing, out of sheer stubbornness against how hard I had the two-spaces rule drilled into me. It doesn't hurt that I feel like I personally can keep my rhythm better after only a single space rather than two. I also just like the general symmetry of no punctuation having to be typed with a different spacing around it.
Now really what I want is better typesetting software. I love LaTeX. I even edited a couple of issues of the TeX User Group journal a couple years bag. But it's a crappy system to try and introduce people to. It requires so much initial work, copying examples in pure faith until you understand what they do, constantly looking up commands, trawling extensively through stack exchange to try and figure out errors you get. Like the results are incredible when it works but until you get there it's kinda hell.
Basically I just want some kind of new LaTeX that's suitable for both the web, ebooks, and every other kind of text creation. And I want it to be simpler to program. Easier to get people started with. Oh, and it should have some kind of CSS file equivalent where you can change styling of documents on the fly according to your personal preferences.
There's no way that can be an incredibly complex, near impossible problem, right?